Re: Would you buy your grocery here if..........
Believe it or not, this concept has been around longer then the internet has been around. I lived with my brother and mother in the western part of Philadelphia for awhile in the late 60s. Mom was a school teacher, and my brother and I went to a school that had mandatory sports after classes. While my mother would have been the primary shopper, neither my brother or I could be of help either, because our day didn't end any sooner than hers did.
What Mom did was to order groceries at a local grocery via telephone. The store provided a list of every product that they sold, and updated it as products were added and deleted, or as prices changed. For her, this was a major timesaver, and as I remember, the price wasn't really much different than the walk in price. I think there was a delivery charge, though.
We bought most everything that we needed from the store, including household prodcuts, etc. While I'm sure she might have sent something back once in awhile, I don't have any memories of major problems over anything in particular. That said, she did buy some things elsewhere, typically on the way home from work. Items like milk, bread, or something that was forgotten on the last order, seemed to make it onto the "buy it now" list.
What I do think would be an issue today, versus all those years ago, is the attitude of the average store employee. The store that my mother used was not one of the chain groceries - it was a small, owner operated grocery. These days, such stores are scarce in most places, so you don't get the attention to detail, that a store owner might be likely to require of his/her employees. If you could deal with that issue, however, I think the concept would work well. In fact, given the ease of communication and ability to constantly update information via the internet, it might even work better.
BTW, if this is something that you are thinking about doing, you might do a little homework on grocery stores in large cities. This sort of shopping is something that they have also provided for years. With a few phone calls, you might learn a lot about the positive and negative aspects of internet grocery sales and delivery.
PS: I voted "no" only because I'm not pressed for time these days and I'm a cheapskate at heart!
